Framingham students videotaped fight, posted it on Facebook

Principal Michael Welch said at least two students used their cellphone cameras to capture the fight and posted it to Facebook the next day. Those students were sternly spoken to by the school’s student resource officer.

“The whole video thing is a new wrinkle. We’re stuck trying to figure out what you can charge [the videographers] with or discipline them with,” Welch said. “This is the same thing [a schoolyard fight] that has happened for generations. The difference was this made it on the Internet."

"I think there’s no question [the videographers] knew what they did was wrong and won’t do it again,” he added.

Welch, Shastany and School Superintendent Steve Hiersche all said they had not seen the video personally and did not know how long the footage ran.

The video has since been removed from Facebook. School officials believe the students who posted the video took it down themselves once the students heard that teachers had learned it existed, said Welch.

Though no longer online, the video has become part of an ongoing police investigation.

“It’s disappointing that the students wouldn’t do something to alert the police,” said Shastany. “There’s a responsibility students have to each other. They have to intervene and notify police.”

Administrators are also concerned because they believe they were texting one another during the day and immediately after school to alert their classmates the fight was planned.

“As usual, cellphones and text messages got the word out during the day far faster than any word of mouth could, and the two combatants willingly and equally participated,” Principal Michael Welch said in his weekly newsletter, published one week after the fight.

The school does not prevent students from having cellphones, as administrators realize the devices have become an important means of communication between many students and their parents, but students are told to keep phones hidden and off during school.

However, students can't be prevented from using their phone in the bathroom, for example, or when teachers aren’t looking, said Welch, and “as soon as the bell rings, virtually everyone has a cell phone to their ear or is texting.”

On whether the incident will prompt school officials to adopt stricter policies on cellphone use, Hiersche said, "I think one of our dilemmas right now as educators is finding a way to allow appropriate use of technology instead of banning things."

The fight occurred shortly after 2 p.m. by a wooded pathway between school grounds and Johnson Street. Neither boy was seriously injured and their names are not being released because of their age, officials said.

The two boys who fought were suspended for five days, and Welch said he doubted they wanted the fight to be videotaped or posted online.

The reason the two sophomores fought is not entirely clear, said Welch, but administrators believe it may have stemmed from a non-physical altercation earlier in the school year involving the younger brother of one of the combatants.

Shortly after the fight began, members of the school’s staff hurried to stop the altercation. One of the students involved in the fight was caught and others who were spotted fleeing the area were questioned in the following days by school administrators to determine who the other combatant was, said Welch.

Teachers overheard students discussing videos of the fight posted on Facebook. Access to the social networking site is blocked on the school’s computers. But school officials were able to find the video from computers not connected to the school’s network.

Students have been told those found congregating in the woods behind the high school will be subject to disciplinary action.

Welch said he also addressed the student body the day after the fight and used the incident “as an opportunity to educate kids about the problems with technology.”